scholarly journals Current Status and Potential Challenges of Cell-Based Therapy for Treating Status Epilepticus and Chronic Epilepsy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huifang Zhao ◽  
Zhiyuan Li

Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. Chronic and recurrent seizures may give rise to cell necrosis, astrocyte activation, neuron death, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and mitochondria dysfunction. Recent studies have shown that cell-based therapy is a promising treatment option for epilepsy. Various stem cell types were used for treatment of epilepsy in basic and experimental researches. It is especially vital to gauge the efficacy of distinct donor cell types, such as the embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), hippocampal precursor cells, γ-aminobutyric acid-ergic progenitors, neural stem cells. The goal of this chapter is to evaluate the progress made hitherto in this area and to discuss the prospect for cell-based therapy for epilepsy.

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 457-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mária Csöbönyeiová ◽  
Štefan Polák ◽  
L’uboš Danišovič

AbstractThe lack of effective therapies for different neurodegenerative disorders has placed huge burdens on society. To overcome the restricted capacity of the central nervous system for regeneration, the promising alternative would be to use stem cells for more effective treatment of chronic degenerative and inflammatory neurological conditions and also of acute neuronal damage and from injuries or cerebrovascular diseases. The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from somatic cells by the ectopic expression of specific transcription factors has provided the regenerative medicine field with a new tool for investigating and treating neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This technology provides an alternative to traditional approaches, such as nuclear transfer and somatic cell fusion using embryonic stem cells. However, due to a problem in standardization of certain reprogramming techniques and systems research, the induced pluripotent stem cell-based technology is still in its infancy. The present paper is aimed at a brief review of the current status in modeling and cell-based therapies for AD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaifang Wang ◽  
Maryam Farzaneh

Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is one of the main diseases causing female infertility that occurs in about 1% of women between 30-40 years of age. There are few effective methods for the treatment of women with POI. In the past few years, stem cell-based therapy as one of the most highly investigated new therapies has emerged as a promising strategy for the treatment of POI. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can self-renew indefinitely and differentiate into any type of cell. Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) as a type of pluripotent stem cells are the most powerful candidate for the treatment of POI. Human-induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs) are derived from adult somatic cells by the treatment with exogenous defined factors to create an embryonic-like pluripotent state. Both hiPSCs and hESCs can proliferate and give rise to ectodermal, mesodermal, endodermal, and germ cell lineages. After ovarian stimulation, the number of available oocytes is limited and the yield of total oocytes with high quality is low. Therefore, a robust and reproducible in-vitro culture system that supports the differentiation of human oocytes from PSCs is necessary. Very few studies have focused on the derivation of oocyte-like cells from hiPSCs and the details of hPSCs differentiation into oocytes have not been fully investigated. Therefore, in this review, we focus on the differentiation potential of hPSCs into human oocyte-like cells.


Author(s):  
Anja Trillhaase ◽  
Marlon Maertens ◽  
Zouhair Aherrahrou ◽  
Jeanette Erdmann

AbstractStem cell technology has been around for almost 30 years and in that time has grown into an enormous field. The stem cell technique progressed from the first successful isolation of mammalian embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in the 1990s, to the production of human induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in the early 2000s, to finally culminate in the differentiation of pluripotent cells into highly specialized cell types, such as neurons, endothelial cells (ECs), cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, and lung and intestinal cells, in the last decades. In recent times, we have attained a new height in stem cell research whereby we can produce 3D organoids derived from stem cells that more accurately mimic the in vivo environment. This review summarizes the development of stem cell research in the context of vascular research ranging from differentiation techniques of ECs and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) to the generation of vascularized 3D organoids. Furthermore, the different techniques are critically reviewed, and future applications of current 3D models are reported. Graphical abstract


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Septian Sumanto Marpaung ◽  
Ayu Oshin Yap Sinaga

The four transcription factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC are highly expressed in embryonic stem cells (ESC) and their overexpression can induce pluripotency, the ability to differentiate into all cell types of an organism. The ectopic expression such transcription factors could reprogram somatic stem cells become induced pluripotency stem cells (iPSC), an embryonic stem cells-like. Production of recombinant pluripotency factors gain interests due to high demand from generation of induced pluripotent stem cells in regenerative medical therapy recently. This review will focus on demonstrate the recent advances in recombinant pluripotency factor production using various host.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 169-191
Author(s):  
Emma E. Redfield ◽  
Erin K. Luciano ◽  
Monica J. Sewell ◽  
Lucas A. Mitzel ◽  
Isaac J. Sanford ◽  
...  

This study looks at the number of clinical trials involving specific stem cell types. To our knowledge, this has never been done before. Stem cell clinical trials that were conducted at locations in the US and registered on the National Institutes of Health database at ‘clinicaltrials.gov’ were categorized according to the type of stem cell used (adult, cancer, embryonic, perinatal, or induced pluripotent) and the year that the trial was registered. From 1999 to 2014, there were 2,357 US stem cell clinical trials registered on ‘clinicaltrials.gov,’ and 89 percent were from adult stem cells and only 0.12 percent were from embryonic stem cells. This study concludes that embryonic stem cells should no longer be used for clinical study because of their irrelevance, moral questions, and induced pluripotent stem cells.


2020 ◽  
pp. 185-208
Author(s):  
John Parrington

Stem cells, which are ‘immortal’ cells that divide indefinitely and produce many different cell types, are central to how our body develops and maintains itself. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to all cell types in the body, and there has been lots of interest since their discovery in the 1980s in using such cells to generate new tissues or organs to replace diseased or faulty ones. More recently has come the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, which are normal skin cells taken from a person and genetically modified or tweaked chemically to give them stem cell properties. There is now hope that both of these types of stem cells might be used in ‘regenerative’ medicine, for instance in producing pancreatic cells that secrete insulin which could be used to treat diabetes. Perhaps the most remarkable breakthrough in recent years has been the discovery that stem cells introduced into a 3D matrix that is infused with chemicals that stimulate the development of particular cell types, can spontaneously form ‘organoids’, which have many of the cell types and even structural features of human organs such as hearts, kidneys, intestines, and even eyes and brains. Organoids make it possible to study how human organs develop but also this area of science raises many ethical issues. For instance, currently human brain organoids can only grow to the size of an embryonic brain, but if in the future they could be induced to grow to adult brain size, could they develop feelings and thoughts?


Author(s):  
Lulu Ji ◽  
Lin Wang

Human placenta is vital for fetal development, and act as an interface between the fetus and the expecting mother. Abnormal placentati on underpins various pregnancy complications such as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. Despite the important role of placenta, the molecular mechanisms governing placental formation and trophoblast cell lineage specification is poorly understand. It is mostly due to the lack of appropriate model system. The great various in placental types across mammals make it limit for the use of laboratory animals in studying human placental development. However, over the past few years, alternative methods have been employed, including human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, human trophoblast stem cell, and 3-dimensional organoids. Herein, we summarize the present knowledge about human development, differentiated cell types in the trophoblast epithelium and current human placental trophoblast model systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5467
Author(s):  
Daniela Gois Beghini ◽  
Samuel Iwao Horita ◽  
Cynthia Machado Cascabulho ◽  
Luiz Anastácio Alves ◽  
Andrea Henriques-Pons

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are laboratory-produced cells that combine the biological advantages of somatic adult and stem cells for cell-based therapy. The reprogramming of cells, such as fibroblasts, to an embryonic stem cell-like state is done by the ectopic expression of transcription factors responsible for generating embryonic stem cell properties. These primary factors are octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct3/4), sex-determining region Y-box 2 (Sox2), Krüppel-like factor 4 (Klf4), and the proto-oncogene protein homolog of avian myelocytomatosis (c-Myc). The somatic cells can be easily obtained from the patient who will be subjected to cellular therapy and be reprogrammed to acquire the necessary high plasticity of embryonic stem cells. These cells have no ethical limitations involved, as in the case of embryonic stem cells, and display minimal immunological rejection risks after transplant. Currently, several clinical trials are in progress, most of them in phase I or II. Still, some inherent risks, such as chromosomal instability, insertional tumors, and teratoma formation, must be overcome to reach full clinical translation. However, with the clinical trials and extensive basic research studying the biology of these cells, a promising future for human cell-based therapies using iPS cells seems to be increasingly clear and close.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catriona Kelly ◽  
Cara C. S. Flatt ◽  
Neville H. McClenaghan

The incidence of diabetes and the associated debilitating complications are increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. Current therapies for type 1 diabetes focus primarily on administration of exogenous insulin to help restore glucose homeostasis. However, such treatment rarely prevents the long-term complications of this serious metabolic disorder, including neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, and cardiovascular disease. Whole pancreas or islet transplantations have enjoyed limited success in some individuals, but these approaches are hampered by the shortage of suitable donors and the burden of lifelong immunosuppression. Here, we review current approaches to differentiate nonislet cell types towards an islet-cell phenotype which may be used for larger-scale cell replacement strategies. In particular, the differentiation protocols used to direct embryonic stem cells, progenitor cells of both endocrine and nonendocrine origin, and induced pluripotent stem cells towards an islet-cell phenotype are discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (suppl_6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel G. Kooreman ◽  
Joseph C. Wu

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the ability (i) to duplicate indefinitely while maintaining pluripotency and (ii) to differentiate into cell types of all three embryonic germ layers. These two properties of ESCs and iPSCs make them potentially suitable for tissue engineering and cell replacement therapy for many different diseases, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes and heart disease. However, one critical obstacle in the clinical application of ESCs or iPSCs is the risk of teratoma formation. The emerging field of molecular imaging is allowing researchers to track transplanted ESCs or iPSCs in vivo , enabling early detection of teratomas.


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